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Carton 100 f/13 Reborn (Return of Big Red)


johninderby

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Had Big Red's tube refinished in two pack candy red paint a month ago and now that the paint has fully hardened it's time to put it all back together. Had painted the tube myself when I originally built Big Red but was time for a re-paint with a more durable paint. Proper two pack paint is nasty stuff to work with and is only really suitable to be done by a pro with all the safety gear including a breathing air supply. Lot tougher finish than powder coating. ?

 

First step was to re-fit the flocking and baffle rings. Used Protostar Flockboard to line the inside of the tube and also made the baffle rings from the flockboard. Then fasten the mounting flange for the focuser and fit the objective mounting cell/flange. The last part was a bit fiddly as its bolted onto the tube from the inside so that no bolts/screws show on the outside.

 

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Nice and dark inside.  ?

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Edited by johninderby
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Objective cleaned for the first time in seven years using Baader Optical Wonder fluid and a brand new cloth and fiited. Focuser also fitted.

Brass dew shield polished. Starting to look like a scope again.  ?

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Edited by johninderby
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Lumicon SuperFinder set up with all the brass bits. Finder has an Omegon prism diagonal which is so much brighter and sharper than the type of diagonal that normaly comes with a finder.

 

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Edited by johninderby
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As promised some proper pics of Big Red set up on the mount.  ?

Now just need some clear skies to fine tune the collimation which should be pretty close as is but inevitably having taken it all apart and put it back together things won't be spot on.

      John

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  • 1 year later...

New focuser and finder bracket for Big Red.

Had borrowed the Badder Steeltrack from Big Red to use “temporarily” with the new 8” Classical Cassegrain and bought a new TS 2.5” R&P for it but found when it arrived that it couldn’t be used. The drawtube had 20mm longer travel than the Steeltrack but was about 50mm longer overall which mean’t it simply wouldn’t fit as adding extensions in order to make it fit mean’t there wasn’t enough infocus to focus with a two inch diagonal. So the Steeltrack is staying on the Cassegrain.

The TS focuser screwed onto the Baader flange on Big Red although needed one of the Cassegrains 25mm extensions as the drawtube hit the rear baffle. Swapped the chrome fine focus knob for a black one off of another scope. Would like a brass knob to go with the scope but at least black doesn’t look out if place. Still need to replace the rotation and locking chrome knobs with brass ones. 

Think the new focuser does look good on Big Red and will work as well as the Steeltrack.🙂

Bought a Svbony finder bracket for the Cassegrain and liked it so got one to replace the WO one originally used. The problem with the WO bracket was the ring diameter was too small to allow the 50mm finder to be adjusted properly. Changed the silver screws for the brass ones.

Also took all the brass bits off the scope and buffed them up on the buffing wheel. Now Big Red is ready and waiting for the AZ100 mount. A mount worthy of Big Red. 🙂🙂🙂

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Edited by johninderby
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Brass thumbscrews for the focuser rotation and drawtube locks fitted. The rotation thumbscrew was just a straight forward replacement for the chrome one.

The drawtube lock one required a nylon tipped screw and I just couldn’t find one so had to make my own. Got a 4mm to 3mm shaft coupler and drilled out one end to 1/8 to match the shank size of the micro milling bit. Then tapped out the other end to M5. Then just screw it onto the brass thumbscrew and bore a 2.2mm hole in the end of the screw using the guide. Then just push in the nylon tip removed from another tipped screw and job done.👍🏻

And before anyone mentions the screw already has a hole in the end pics were taken after it had been bored out.🙂

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Edited by johninderby
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